Using Automation to Advance Dry-Cleaning Processes
This episode is brought to you by Control Concepts Inc.
Food and beverage processing engineers have much to balance when designing and optimizing facilities and production lines — including maintaining optimum food safety and process performance. Implementation of hygienic air-handling systems should be a critical piece of that puzzle, says Henry Tiffany, president of Control Concepts Inc., who shares insights on how processors can ensure product integrity and safety, using innovative dry-cleaning systems.
This episode is sponsored by Control Concepts Inc. Learn more about Control Concepts' AirSweep material activation systems.
Food Processing: Which critical points should process engineers focus on when it comes to food safety on the raw materials/ingredients handling end of the plant?
Henry Tiffany: Engineers are typically focused on operational optimization with respect to manpower, machinery, materials and processes. Advances in automation have streamlined manpower requirements, while state-of-the-art machinery offers superior performance, and material selection includes the procurement of cost-effective quality ingredients. While process improvements are often focused on safeguarding production and maximizing throughput, one area with significant potential for enhancement remains manufacturing system cleaning, which is where our Airsweep product can help.
FP: You had mentioned seeing increased interest in ensuring food safety in the material handling, storage, mixing and blending areas of food and beverage processing facilities. What is driving that increased demand for solutions?
HT: Interest has increased as manufacturers strive to safeguard product integrity. A few years back, we were fortunate to assist a major baby formula manufacturer with dry-cleaning protocols, including cleaning matrices to reduce changeover frequency, which they had adopted to extend production time. While food safety practices have led to improved cleaning strategies, core cleaning methods have seen little innovation.
Manual cleaning, including the disassembly of enclosed systems for access to product-contact surfaces such as dump hoppers, powder transport lines, blenders, sifters, magnets, vacuums, gassing and filling hoppers has been the norm and is still common practice. What I will call "the old method" is time-consuming and typically includes material flushing to ensure meeting microbial standards.
Our USDA-accepted AirSweep and Sanitary Pulse Valve solutions are designed to increase production yield, by reducing material loss and dramatically reduce downtime commonly associated with flushing the processing equipment.
FP: How can processors ensure efficient operations and attain properly blended formulas while still producing a clean, food-safe product?
HT: Manufacturers typically accept the loss of production hours and product caused by the need for cleaning due to product buildup or changes in SKUs and formulations — particularly in plants with single lines producing multiple SKUs. Installation of our USDA-accepted AirSweep and Sanitary Pulse Valve at the conclusion of production runs allows sequential line cleaning to be initiated immediately, with materials being flushed and collected efficiently.
Our approach will increase yield and significantly reduces material loss commonly associated with flushing. Manufacturing downtime caused by end-of-process cleaning will be minimized — from up to four hours for a manual process to as little as 30 minutes — with dramatic reduction in material loss. Notably, the risk of microbial contamination (often introduced during manual system opening) has decreased, enhancing overall operational efficiency and delivering rapid return on investment.
FP: Keeping product or raw material from building up in niches and causing a contamination issue down the line is obvious to all processors when it comes to direct product contact surfaces, but why is it also critical for the components that deliver compressed air to things like hoppers and blenders?
HT: The USDA-accepted AirSweep is designed to meet the attachment requirements for a food-contact area, and we ship sanitary air hoses to meet sanitary requirements. When it came to our attention that no USDA-accepted Sanitary Pulse Valves were available in the marketplace, we worked with the USDA to design a new valve that received patent approval in 2025. Control Concepts is now able to provide a complete USDA-accepted engineered solution, including the pressurized air.
The Sanitary Pulse Valve, constructed of FDA-accepted materials, is designed to control the flow of compressed air or inert gas in industrial environments where USDA regulations are required. The Clean-Out-of-Place (COP) Sanitary Pulse Valve was intentionally designed to be easily disassembled and sanitized in accordance with the sanitary practices imposed by the end users.
FP: When it comes to keeping components like a valve or material activator easy to clean, what are the key design elements that a plant-design or process engineer should seek? Are the challenges significantly different between handling dry materials versus wet/moist materials, and if so, how?
HT: Ensuring devices can be thoroughly cleaned is essential for handling both powder and liquid materials. Several key factors must be considered when assessing the cleanability of equipment, like avoiding sharp corners, eliminating threaded joints and using highly polished surfaces in order to reduce material buildup, which can lead to contamination. Additionally, designing components so they’re easy to take apart and reassemble protects the polished surfaces from damage.
Using tools during assembly often risks scratching or nicking these surfaces when a worker is in a rush to get the job done. To minimize this risk, any necessary tools should be made from soft jaw materials to avoid harming the equipment. It’s also important to regularly replace seals to maintain efficient operation. Never reuse seals beyond their recommended lifespan, even if they appear intact. Plant process engineers and hygienists typically perform in-house failure mode analyses based on specific hygiene protocols. The AirSweep system has received approval from major dairy and pharmaceutical companies for use in their processes, and our CIP (clean-in-place) USDA AirSweep designs have been successfully tested by the Bulk Solids Innovation Center at Kansas State University.